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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28856043">The Color of Friendship</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripesicles222/pseuds/Stripesicles222'>Stripesicles222</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>RWBY Tales [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friendship, Humor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:55:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,569</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28856043</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripesicles222/pseuds/Stripesicles222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a typical day in Beacon's arts and crafts class.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>RWBY Tales [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1002489</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Color of Friendship</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Beacon Academy is known first and foremost for its prestigious hunter program; doing its best to prepare its students for the monster-slaying life ahead of them. That being said, the students must be well rounded in all aspects, and not just physical fitness and strategy.</p>
<p>The academy offered many other sorts of classes as well, such as music, theater, social sciences, and the like. It was crucial that hunters be able to think on the spot and be creative in their decisions.</p>
<p>Art class was a great way to help the students recover from their more taxing classes, which typically drained them both physically and mentally.</p>
<p>It also provided a great way to keep them out of trouble, which in turn, significantly lowered repair costs for property damage in the years after the program's implementation.</p>
<p>However, even well thought out plans like this had their failings. Some students just didn't have the patience for the arts. And even if they did, it didn't always go as smoothly as preferred…</p>
<p>~~~~~</p>
<p>The members of Team RWBY, at the behest of resident heiress Weiss Schnee, were enrolled in one of Beacon's above-mentioned art classes. The white haired fencer believed it would good for her team to gather some extra credits to ensure all their course requirements would be met.</p>
<p>So it was that the four girls found themselves sitting behind easels surrounded by paints of varying shades.</p>
<p>Weiss' painting style was elegant, much like everything else she did, and it was unsurprising when Blake chose more mysterious designs, opting to use darker colors.</p>
<p>Yang and Ruby, on the other hand, threw grace and self-control out the window. More often than not, more paint ended up on themselves than on their canvases.</p>
<p>On this particular day, the troublesome siblings were sitting back waiting for their teammates to finish. They had completed their projects early, but classroom rules stated that they had to remain until everyone on their team was done, or until the class period was over.</p>
<p>"I finally understand the meaning of the phrase to 'watch paint dry'," Yang groaned.</p>
<p>"It's so boring!" Ruby drawled as she turned to her other teammates. "When will you guys be done so we can leave?"</p>
<p>"We'll be done when we are done," Weiss told her. "And maybe if you put even an ounce of thought or detail into your assignment you wouldn't have rushed through it."</p>
<p>"I put plenty of thought into it," Ruby defended, turning her easel towards her partner. "See?"</p>
<p>Weiss glanced briefly up at the painting momentarily before turning her attention back to her own.</p>
<p>"Very nice," she said, voice lacking any and all emotion. "Now if you don't mind, I'm trying to focus."</p>
<p>Ruby frowned at the lack of response from her partner. Mildly dejected and still bored, she turned back to her sister who had witnessed the exchange.</p>
<p>"Ya-aang," she whined. "Weiss is ignoring me!"</p>
<p>The blonde chuckled as she ruffled Ruby's hair.</p>
<p>"Sorry to hear that sis," she cooed, her smile easily belying the false pity her words offered. "How about we turn our assignments to a competition?" She offered.</p>
<p>"We already did that," Ruby reminded. "I won by not only finishing before you but also by having more paint on the canvas than you."</p>
<p>True to her words, Ruby's project was covered in thick layers of paint, ranging from black to neon blue, with most of it reds of varying shades.</p>
<p>Yang waved her off, clearly not pleased with being reminded of her recent defeats.</p>
<p>"I was going to say, 'how about we see whose will dry the fastest'."</p>
<p>Ruby pondered her sister's suggestion. True, her soaked canvas would probably take longer to dry naturally than Yang's, but she wasn't one to easily back down from a challenge. And she was really bored…</p>
<p>"You're on," she declared, eagerly taking Yang's hand as she offered to seal the deal.</p>
<p>Blake took this moment to glance up from her own bored to fix them with a doubtful gaze.</p>
<p>"You guys are seriously going to watch paint dry?" she asked. "Even after complaining about it not ten minutes ago?"</p>
<p>Yang shrugged before blowing on her project hoping to speed up the process. Ruby protested her 'cheating' before proceeding to do so twice as fast on her own puddle of colors.</p>
<p>Blake watched them bemusedly for a few more seconds before returning to her own project.</p>
<p>For a few minutes, all was peaceful. Of course, that only meant things were about to dissolve into chaos.</p>
<p>It started simple enough, with Weiss taking a step back to admire her most recent touches to her painting. All would have continued as normal, if only Yang had kept her mouth shut.</p>
<p>"Color me impressed," she said unashamedly, "the princess has an imagination after all!"</p>
<p>To Weiss' credit, she did manage to hold her tongue and refrain from snapping at her friend. However, that just seemed to fuel the fire.</p>
<p>"Can't speak?" Yang asked. "I guess it's a good thing you've done a painting then. After all—"</p>
<p>"Don't you dare say it…" Weiss tensed her jaw and cringed at the incoming verbal blow.</p>
<p>"—a picture's worth a thousand words!"</p>
<p>The heiress growled at that. They weren't exactly puns, per se… but in Weiss' opinion, this was just as bad.</p>
<p>Clenching her paintbrush tightly in her hand she shakily stepped back to her easel hoping the idiot blonde would leave her alone. Thankfully, she was granted a reprieve as Yang's attention was captured by their leader's anguished cries.</p>
<p>"Oh no…" she whimpered. "I smudged it!"</p>
<p>Turning her artwork slightly to show her teammates, she looked at them with an expression only a wounded puppy could match.</p>
<p>"It ruined…" she whispered hoarsely.</p>
<p>"It looks fine to me," Weiss replied.</p>
<p>Ruby was about to thank her for her attempt to appease her when she realized the heiress hadn't even spared her a second of her concentration. A quick glance at Blake revealed the faunus was equally uninterested in her problems.</p>
<p>Ruby huffed and plopped down in her seat in frustration.</p>
<p>"Nobody cares, do they?" She fumed to herself. "Of course, my smudge isn't that big of a deal, is it? Well, it is to me!"</p>
<p>As Ruby finished her mini-rant, she stood up in exasperation, inadvertently tipping over a bucket of paint as she did so.</p>
<p>Momentarily shocked, the young girl could do nothing but watch it fall and cover the floor in a puddle of red.</p>
<p>She wasn't shaken out of her stupor until she heard Weiss seething in her general direction. Already frustrated by Yang's attempts at humor, Ruby's slip up was just icing on the metaphorical cake.</p>
<p>"You complete and utter dolt! Do you have any idea how much these shoes cost me?"</p>
<p>Ruby gulped as the irate heiress continued to lecture her on how badly paint would stain. She was mildly surprised, however, when her partner took a deep, calming breath and stared her in the eye.</p>
<p>"Forgive me for that," she began. "I know it was an accident. Just… be more careful next time, okay?"</p>
<p>Ruby smiled at Weiss' uncharacteristic forgiveness. She had known for a while now that she was trying to be a better teammate and friend, but it was still nice to see it put into action.</p>
<p>"Aww, thanks Weiss," she said as she leaned over and hugged the heiress tightly, ignoring the splashing paint below her feet.</p>
<p>In response, her partner shrieked and jolted away pushing Ruby off of her.</p>
<p>"Dolt, you're covered in paint!"</p>
<p>"Oh. Oops?" Ruby offered weakly.</p>
<p>Weiss glared at her as she checked the damage done to her uniform.</p>
<p>Sure enough, there was a large red spot down her form with other colors branching out from the epicenter of the mess. It didn't take long for Weiss' face to match the center shades as she bristled with anger.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry Weiss," Ruby pleaded. "I didn't mean to, really."</p>
<p>"Yeah, come on Weiss," Yang joined in, not really wanting to see her sister die today. "Brush it off."</p>
<p>Blake not-so-subtly elbowed her partner to let her know that she really wasn't helping the situation. At all.</p>
<p>Weiss raged internally for a few minutes, glaring icily at her teammates and any other students who were foolish enough to glance in their direction.</p>
<p>Casually, she approached Ruby, fixating her gaze onto that of her younger teammate. She allowed a smirk to stretch across her face.</p>
<p>The unwilling target eyed her nervously, stepping back as the heiress approached. She dreaded that smirk. That smirk usually meant she wouldn't like whatever was to come next.</p>
<p>Ruby was forced to come to a stop as her back hit a wall. She gulped in trepidation as Weiss stopped only a few steps away from her.</p>
<p>Weiss reached and grabbed Ruby's arm pulling her away from the wall. Ruby let herself get dragged, instinctively squeezing her eyes shut as she awaited her latest lecture.</p>
<p>Instead of words, however, she was met with the feeling of a cold substance oozing over her head and down her back and face.</p>
<p>Wiping her face, she opened her eyes to see Weiss smirking at her again with an empty can of blue paint in her hand.</p>
<p>Ruby watched blankly as Weiss returned once again to her easel and picked up a brush. Before continuing her work, she called back to her once more.</p>
<p>"Next time, be more careful."</p>
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